Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit 11 Foot Vacuum Chamber Upgrades and Future Testing

The Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit (xEMU) uncrewed 11’ vacuum chamber testing will evaluate the capabilities of the 11’ vacuum chamber facility to support advanced spacesuit testing. The government reference design xEMU spacesuit provides a high-fidelity test article to demonstrate 11’ vacuum chamber capabilities including: gas loading of the chamber at varying simulated metabolic rates and during open loop suit abort operations, IVA vacuum access, consumables recharge, IVA vehicle-provided thermal loop cooling, and IVA vehicle-provided power. To demonstrate the xEMU airlock operations transitioning from IVA to EVA conditions without a test subject in the suit, test support equipment was developed to remotely actuate both the xESCU and the vacuum access umbilical. This test also evaluated the performance of the Exploration Portable Life Support System (xPLSS) at vacuum conditions. Data was collected and analyzed for carbon dioxide (CO2) scrubbing performance of the Rapid Cycle Amine swingbed (RCA), for thermal regulation performance of the Suit Water Membrane Evaporator (SWME), and for sensor performance across the xPLSS. This paper will detail the objectives of the test, success criteria, suit to chamber interfaces, test support equipment, configuration of the test article, and a discussion of facility capabilities not evaluated during this test series.